French Opera - The Classical Tradition ~ Folk songs and Traditional music round the world

French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Poulenc and Olivier Messiaen. Many foreign-born composers have played a part in the French tradition too, including Gluck, Cherubini, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Offenbach and Verdi.

Opera Paris House

The early operas in France date back to the reign of King Louis XIV wich was known as the 'Sun King' because of the splendor of his court. France did not only become Europe's major political power but it achieved artistic dominance as Louis XIV spent lavishly and became patron of cultural figures that included writers Molière and Racine, and composer Lully.

lully french opera

Jean-Baptiste Lully is regarded as the "father of French opera." Born on November 28, 1632 in Florence, Italy, Giovanni Battista Lulli was the son of a miller, though he later claimed

that his father was a nobleman. Lully had a natural talent for dancing and playing the guitar but had little musical education. In 1646, at the age of fourteen, he was 'discovered' by the Duke of Guise, who took him to France. He got a job as a scullery boy. His employer, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, provided a teacher to cultivate his musical talents before he was dismissed.

Lully and his librettist Quinault created tragédie en musique, a form in which dance music and choral writing were particularly prominent. Lully's most important successor was Rameau. After Rameau's death, the German Gluck was persuaded to produce six operas for the Parisian stage in the 1770s. They show the influence of Rameau, but simplified and with greater focus on the drama. At the same time, by the middle of the 18th century another genre was gaining popularity in France: opéra comique, in which arias alternated with spoken dialogue.[2] By the 1820s, Gluckian influence in France had given way to a taste for the operas of Rossini. Rossini's Guillaume Tell helped found the new genre of Grand opera, a form whose most famous exponent was Giacomo Meyerbeer. Lighter opéra comique also enjoyed tremendous success in the hands of Boïeldieu, Auber and others. In this climate, the operas of the French-born composer Hector Berlioz struggled to gain a hearing. Berlioz's epic masterpiece Les Troyens, the culmination of the Gluckian tradition, was not given a full performance for almost a hundred years after it was written.

In the second half of the 19th century, Jacques Offenbach dominated the new genre of operetta with witty and cynical works such as Orphée aux enfers; Charles Gounod scored a massive success with Faust; and Bizet composed Carmen, probably the most famous French opera of all. At the same time, the influence of Richard Wagner was felt as a challenge to the French tradition. Perhaps the most interesting response to Wagnerian influence was Claude Debussy's unique operatic masterpiece Pelléas et Mélisande (1902). Other notable 20th century names include Ravel, Poulenc and Messiaen.

Source : frenchopera.suite101.com
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French Opera - The Classical Tradition: Berlioz - Les Troyens